A / N : Sequel! At last! Unfortunately, I have bad news. My internet is about to disappear. As of Friday. I'll do my best to find a solution, but please don't be surprised if updates aren't as frequent as usual, it's not my fault. I'm having a pretty bad time of it at the moment so please be patient with me. I think that's all . . . review if you read it, as usual. It means a lot to me.

Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter, or anything you recognize. The chapter title comes from a song by Lostprophets, and I don't own the rights to that either. Just the CD!

Oh yes – this chapter is dedicated to Jacalyn Hyde, who is currently reviewing her way through Protege Moi, and making me smile. Thanks!

Right – enjoy!

Wake Up

She was drowning. Water pressed against her, and she couldn't throw it off, couldn't break the surface, because, she realized, she couldn't swim. No-one had ever taught her how, and she was paying for it now. Her arms and legs wouldn't move the way she wanted them to, and she couldn't cry out for help, because she couldn't make a sound. Couldn't shift the iron weight that pressed against her chest, couldn't drag the air into her lungs to breathe . . . .

Narcissa awoke with a scream.

There was an almighty crash, and someone swore. Cissy sat up, freeing herself from the stiff linen covers with a gasp. As she struggled to catch her breath, she realized that all she could see was white. White walls and white bedcovers and white hangings . . . . she was in the hospital wing. She stared down at herself. She was wearing a white hospital gown, and she was cold, but there didn't seem to be anything else wrong with her.

"Hello Cissy."

Narcissa jumped. Bellatrix was seated at her bedside, tracing a design on a piece of scrap parchment and looking completely at ease, her long legs crossed and a thin smile playing about her lips. Narcissa wasn't entirely sure it was a smile she liked. She frowned, dropping her gaze to the floor. Lucius Malfoy was sprawled there, along with half the contents of her bedside locker. He seemed to have fallen over. After a moment he cleared his throat.

"Hello Narcissa," he said stiffly, picking himself up and dusting his robes off with a rather disgruntled expression. He was staring at her apprehensively, as though she were a grenade that might go off at any minute. "I trust you're feeling, ah . . . well?"

The expression on his face suggested he thought her insane. Narcissa blushed. Why did she have to scream like that? And why oh why did Lucius Malfoy, of all people, have to witness it?

"I'm fine," she mumbled, wincing a little at his dubious expression. "I had a bad dream," she explained.

"Oh. I see." He continued to stare at her. If Narcissa hadn't been so busy feeling hideously embarrassed, she might have noticed something like concern flicker across his features. But she didn't, and Lucius pushed the odd, foreign feeling away before it really had a chance to register. After all, things like "pity" and "concern" weren't concepts Lucius was really accustomed to.

"Bella?"

"Mmm?" Her sister added another flourish to whatever she was currently embellishing.

"Why am I here?" Narcissa asked the obvious, and her sister looked up at last.

"Oh! Don't you remember? You had an accident," Bella explained, in response to her sibling's blank look. "You broke your leg."

"I what?" Narcissa stared down at her legs in panic, but they both seemed to be unharmed and in full working order. Clearly they had been healed. But she definitely didn't remember breaking her leg . . . . She cast her mind back, trying to shake off the effects of whatever they had given her to make her sleep, and to forget the overwhelming sensation of panic that had accompanied her dream of drowning. Bella was still wearing that unsettling smile, and it seemed to stir something in Narcissa's memory. Hello Cissy . . . . She shook her head, trying to dispell her surely irrational sense of unease.

"What happened?" she asked carefully.

Bella arched an eyebrow. "Don't you remember? Well . . . I suppose you wouldn't. You had some sort of fight with Sirius Black," she continued. "He hit you."

Narcissa nodded slowly. She did remember that . . .

"Anyway, it seems likely that you hit your head off the wall and gave yourself concussion. An accident, I'm sure . . . You were found at the bottom of the stairs with a broken leg. It looks like you tripped. Honestly, I don't know why you didn't go to the hospital wing straight away . . ."

"But . . I . ." Narcissa opened her mouth, then shut it again. She couldn't shake off the sense that something wasn't right . To distract herself from this unsettling sensation, she looked at the floor, away from Bella's hard stare. As she did so, her eyes fell upon the mess Lucius had knocked to the ground – her school satchel, and all its contents. It came back to her in a rush. Of course! She had followed her schoolbag, down the hall and into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and that was where she'd seen . . . Bella. Narcissa sucked in her breath, shocked and confused all at the same time. What had Bella even been doing at school? And why would she lie about it? Narcissa blurted out the words before she could stop herself.

"But I thought you were in France!" she exclaimed, rather senselessly in retrospect. "What were you doing here?"

Bella blinked, and for a moment, Narcissa thought she had managed to take her by surprise. But then she collected herself again, so quickly that Cissy was left to wonder if she had imagined it.

"We came back," her sister said smoothly, not sounding alarmed in the least by Narcissa's suspicion. "France was no fun anyway," she continued. "Lucius got sick, so I ended up playing nursemaid to him for most of it," - she rolled her eyes - "and then I had bit of an, er, run-in with the locals." She grimaced and Lucius frowned at her. Apparently this was news to him. "Still," - a sudden smile lit Bella's features - "I suppose there were a few highlights . . ." She stared off into the distance for a moment, still smiling. Narcissa wasn't sure she liked this smile either. It was a type of smile she had never seen Bella wear before, and something about it made her uneasy again. It was brooding and excited, all at the same time, and there was something else in it too . . . she shivered. Whatever it was, Narcissa had the feeling it didn't bode well.

"But I saw you."

"What?" Bella came back to earth with a scowl. "What are you talking about?"

"I saw you," Narcissa insisted. "In the bathroom. In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. You came up to me and you said . . ." She frowned, struggling to recall anything beyond that point.

Bella scowled at her. "Don't be ridiculous," she said coldly. "What are you implying?"

Narcissa flushed. Truth be told, she didn't know. But she wasn't stupid, or at least, she didn't think she was entirely stupid. She had known her sister long enough to know when she was up to something.

"Whatever you're about to suggest," Bella continued, her tone distinctly icy, "I'd think carefully about it, if I were you. After all, if you're implying I had something to do with this . ." She trailed off.

"No! Of course I don't mean that . ." Narcissa relented as a wave of unhappiness washed over her. Bella was making her feel like a fool, making her question her sanity. And Lucius was staring from one sister to the other, looking highly uncomfortable. Desperate for him not to think her mad, she made one last weak attempt to defend herself. "It's just that . . . Bella I saw you," she protested.

There was no longer a smile of any sort upon her sister's face. "Don't be stupid, Cissy," she said dangerously. She sat up a little straighter, and a hawkish glint entered her eye. "Which reminds me . . . you and I need to have a little chat."

Narcissa blanched. She really didn't like the way that sounded. "What – what about?" she stammered.

Bella raised an eyebrow and glanced at Lucius. "Later," she decided. Narcissa frowned, not knowing whether to be grateful or apprehensive. "In the meantime-" her sister added one final flourish to whatever she had been drawing, and then folded the piece of parchment in half and unexpectedly presented it to Narcissa - "Happy birthday."

"Ha – happy birthday?" Narcissa echoed, confused. Bellatrix rolled her eyes.

"Yes, you dolt. Happy birthday. It is your birthday, you know."

Cissy frowned, alarmed. Was it? Oh yes – it was. It seemed obvious now, and she wondered how she could have forgotten. Apparently Bellatrix was thinking along the same lines.

"Merlin, Cissy – you forgot your own birthday? What have you been doing?" she asked suspiciously.

Narcissa blushed. Searching for a way to change the subject, she picked up the card Bella had tossed into her lap. Happy Birthday was written across the top in Bella's perfect penmanship and beneath that was a doodle of a rose, each swirling petal picked out perfectly. Coiling up the side of the page, for some unknown reason, was a snake. Bella had charmed the parchment, and Narcissa watched the serpent writhe and coil, feeling puzzled. She didn't see what business a snake had on her birthday card. Eventually she decided it must be some oblique reference to her Slytherin credentials. Lucius Malfoy was staring at the serpent too, a faint frown line creasing his forehead. Narcissa quickly placed the card on her bedside table, propped up against her jug of water.

"Thanks."

Bella shrugged. "You're welcome," she said indifferently, ignoring the funny look Lucius was now giving her. He turned to Narcissa instead.

"It's your birthday?" he asked.

She nodded. She wasn't sure she trusted herself to speak, when he was talking to her directly.

"Oh. I didn't know. I suppose I should have given you a present . ." He frowned, while Narcissa wished for the ground to swallow her up.

"It's fine," she said quickly, finding her voice at last. "I don't need anything, honestly . . ."

But Lucius waved away her protests. Instead he plucked his wand from his pocket and waved it once. A flower burst out of it and fell into Narcissa's lap. A white rose. She stared at it.

Bella laughed cruelly. "A flower?" she said disdainfully. "Is that the best you can come up with?"

Lucius rolled his eyes. "Believe it or not, Bellatrix, I'm not in the habit of giving presents to thirteen year old girls. How would I know what to give her?"

Narcissa interrupted. "I like it," she said, and Lucius inclined his head, briefly acknowledging her thanks. Then he and Bella started bickering again, and ignored her, as per usual. She swallowed. There was a lump in her throat, somehow. She gripped the stem of the white rose very tightly, and her eyes began to swim as the thorns dug into her palm. Appalled at herself, she hurriedly blinked the tears away, aware of how ridiculous she would look if she started crying now, for no apparent reason. She put the rose on the table, next to her card, and wiped her eyes as discreetly as she could. And then she saw it.

"You're wearing a scarf!"

Bella froze, midway through a cutting put-down about Lucius' taste in robes. "What?"

"You're wearing a scarf," Narcissa repeated. It was true. Her sister had a black silk scarf wrapped around her neck, despite the fact that it was a warm day in early May.

Bella scowled. "So? Wearing a scarf isn't a crime. At least not when the person wearing it is a woman." She smirked at Lucius, who scowled back at her.

"There is nothing wrong-" he began hotly, but Narcissa interrupted him.

"You've got bruises, Bella," she persisted, "On your neck. I saw them, in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."

"I was never in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom! For crying out loud!" Bellatrix exclaimed. But Lucius interrupted her this time, frowning.

"What does she mean, bruises?" he asked suspiciously.

Bella clenched her fists, a sure sign she was getting angry. "Nothing," she insisted, glaring at Narcissa. "There are no bruises. Cissy, stop being such a fantasist."

Narcissa blushed brilliant pink. This was so unfair! Bella was making her look like a lunatic! So for once, she held her ground.

"Then take it off," she demanded. "If there aren't any bruises, then take it off and prove it."

Bella's mouth fell open. "You – what – I mean - you can't just – order me -" she spluttered incoherently.

Lucius, meanwhile, took the opportunity to repeat "What bruises?" with a rather dangerous glint in his eye.

Bellatrix ignored him, pulling herself together and fixing her sister with a glare that could have powdered glass.

"There are no bruises," she repeated coldly.

"Then prove it!"

"How dare you! I don't have you prove anything to you, you insolent, ungrateful little -"

"All I'm asking you to do is take off the scarf," Narcissa reasoned. "If you've got nothing to hide then I don't see why you don't just-"

"It's a matter of principle!" Bellatrix exploded. "I don't have to prove anything to you! And there's no way I'm indulging your morbid imagination, Cissy-"

Lucius, to Narcissa's surprise, came to her defence. "I still don't see why you don't take it off, if you really have nothing to hide," he said.

Bellatrix shrieked at him. "Oh shut up, Lucius! What would you know about it?" Then she turned on Narcissa again, eyes flashing. "And as for you! If you don't drop this, I swear I'll-"

What Bella would have done to her Narcissa never found out, because at that moment, the doors to the hospital wing flew open, and sheer shock gagged her sister as effectively as any charm. Standing in the doorway, glaring at Bellatrix, stood their parents.

A / N : By the way, if anyone is wondering why Bella didn't simply heal the bruises, the answer is that she's not good at healing spells. Healing spells are something she considers of lesser importance than curses, for example, so she never devoted much time to learning them, in the same way she never bothered with, say, Divination. It's like gangsters not learning first aid, despite the likelihood of being shot. (What an interesting similie . . . . .)